How to Draw Soundwave, Transformers, Soundwave

Step 1.

Ok, to start this sucker off, let's draw a basic body using large, round shapes. Draw a larger circle for the chest, and a small one for the head. Draw a diamond shape for the pelvis, and then draw an oval for both the upper and lower arms, and the upper and lower legs. Finish it off with some squashed ovals for the feet, and some curves for the fingers.

Step 2.

Now on to the line art. Start by drawing a V for the eyebrows, and then complete the forehead shape. Draw triangles for the eye sockets. Soundwave has very pronounced cheekbones, and a pointy chin. Draw in the round outline of his "earmuff."

Step 3.

Next draw in the antennae on either side of his head. There are two sets of these, and another similar shape defines the side of the head. Close in the circle of the earmuff.

Step 4.

Now we'll move on to the chest area. On either side of the upper chest, draw a V-shape with sharp angles. Between those shapes and a bit lower, draw a thicker V-shape. Try to give this shape a blockier look.

Step 5.

Next draw another V-shape with the point connecting in the top center of the previous shape. This is a simple and skinny V-shape, and basically represents the collar bones. Inside the lower chest shape, draw a diamond shape on either side, and a shape in the center. This resembles the shape of a police badge.

Step 6.

Draw an armor panel for the stomach section, and a narrower diamond-shape for the crotch plate beneath that. Then move up and use a diamond-shape to form the neck.

Step 7.

On either side of the chest, draw a circle for Soundwave's speakers. From this angle, the circle on the right will be a bit squashed from side to side. On the stomach, draw two M-shapes overlapping the armor panel.

Step 8.

Now close up the outline of the torso, and add rectangular shapes to indicate some "ribs."

Step 9.

The legs are full of overlapping shapes, so it's best to start from the feet and work our way upwards. Each foot has two blocky toes in the center, and two smaller toes on the outer sides. Connect these shapes to outline the front of the foot.

Step 10.

For the shins, we want to draw four distorted rectangle shapes on each leg. These metal panels bend outward and then back in again. The darker shape is a gap between the panels, but a small V-shape rest on top of this. Use small curves to connect the shins to the toes.

Step 11.

The kneecaps are basically diamond-shapes, but each knee is straddled with a pair of spikes like elephant tusks. The inner spike bends back once (the V-shape), and then once again toward itself (the diamond-shape).

Step 12.

Each thigh has a large, blocky panel wrapped around the front (from this angle, the middle and the other edges). These extend from the hip to just above the knees. Smaller V-shapes rest on the inner thighs.

Step 13.

Move back to the feet, and draw a V- or Y-shape for the heels. To simplify the detail of the leg, we're going to alternate between drawing blocky shapes and jagged shapes up the length of each leg. The curves in these shapes follow the guide lines. Even with the crazy angles, the shape of the leg should still be relatively clear.

Step 14.

Moving now to the arms, let's start by laying down Soundwave's arm-speakers. These would be very cool for some sort of sonic attack, but I don't recall him doing anything like that in the movie. Although he had more screen time than in Revenge of the Fallen, it still wasn't enough. Poor Soundwave.

Step 15.

Beneath the circle and ellipse shapes, we'll draw ovals for the forearms, with jagged edges at the wrists. Lay in a few lines to indicate different panels.

Step 16.

Draw a smaller pair of circles on each wrist. I'm not sure what these are, but I'll pretend they're mini-speakers. From there, draw in the basic shape of the hands and fingers.

Step 17.

The upper arms consist mainly of jagged panels and a few curves. The big panels are chunks of the car he transforms into, but the upper edge resembles a spike shape from this angle.

Step 18.

Here we need to draw in the tires and hubcap patterns behind Soundwave's head and shoulders.

Step 19.

Now we can move on to the smaller details of the character. We'll start with the face. Draw in the cheekbone, and the sharp teeth of the lower jaw. Then add the front of the forehead crest.

Step 20.

Fill in the panel line, the upper jaw, and the details of the eyes. Then add some detail to the neck area.

Step 21.

Here we'll tackle the panel lines for the upper body. On the larger panels, these lines indicate bends in the metal. On the forearms, we'll use these lines to indicate smaller parts. There are round shapes in the center of the chest and crotch plates.

Step 22.

There's a tail light on the upper part of each thigh. After drawing this, add lines to show the bends in the metal panels. Add some tetris-like shapes in the blank parts of the leg to indicate layered parts. Draw a small light on each kneecap. Then detail up the feet.

Step 23.

Use concentric circles to add definition to the speaker shapes.

Step 24.

Now to make sense of all these shapes... We're leaving all the "front" shapes alone and filling in the background areas with black (or in this case, red).

Step 25.

...and that's basically it. This is a very simplified version of the Soundwave movie design. All of those robots are extremely complex, but I think we've represented the character pretty well here.

Step 26.

As always, adding finer details can help bring a drawing to life. Here I've added a lot of dust and scratches, some alien markings, multiple mini-eyeballs, and some tech patterns here and there. I really hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I think I'm nearing the end of my Transformers movie character tutorials, but perhaps I'll tackle some of the cartoon and video game designs soon. For now, be sure to post your drawings when they're completed. Thanks for viewing!

Hey guys, it's time for more Transformers tutorials. This time we're going to draw Soundwave from Dark of the Moon. He had a larger role in this film than in the previous one, and we finally got to see his robot mode. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the tutorial. Let's get to drawing.

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